Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-07-16

came lob big black snakes, % rattle
snakes, Al copperheads, and SO many or
binary everyday snakes that Pindibble
couldn't count EN-.
Them calves ! b'lieve Is a lie," said
the Old Settler, IAN ez fer the tame bar.
that's a 'tarnal shame. Thar's that ODE
Frazer, a big, strappin' six footer OF a
bushwacker, the very sight on him bein'
enough to skeer a decent bar inter the
wust kind o. c%onniptions, yit he's act'ally
afeerd to go inter the woods alone, cause
he says he mowt Il foul Of a big
b'ar IN be chawed up, an his family
mowt suffer. But las spring he comes
onter a leetle bit Of q cub a whinin'
in O holler log, waitin' fer it's nanny
TO come back an give it sumpin'
TO eat. Wat does ODE do? He gethers
up the cub In cuts his sticks on the
double quick fer home, an ez he happened
to ketch a ride with a lightnin' rod peddler
that had a rattlin' good hoss, he tilrowed
the Of bar often the scent an gifts home
with the cub all hunkey. Now, il he'd
only jist left that cub whar it were, the
chances is that it mowt ha' growed up to
be a tearer, an some o. the boys mowr ha'
u ag'in it an had a bully OF rassel with
IL. But no. ODE yanks the unprotected
cub to his cabin, chains it TO a pole, an
raises it to be a durn ornery, no count
bar hat std o comm TO an end ED
ha' did it an its family credit, setch ez
gittin' a knife in its gullet or an ounce or
W O. lead in its gizzard, iis turns up an
dies ez the fool dieth, by chokin' to death
on q turnip. ODE Frazer orter be prose
cutedl He had, b'gosh!
"Ez to them snakes" continued the
Old Settler after a pause, KNOWN the
Sugar Swamp deestric' eZ well ez l do, l
should say th't Jake Pinbiddle must ha'
ben short o. sumpin' TO do to go an make
u talk over setch a insignificant find O
snakes ez that. Jee-whizzt Wen l were
a boy, an lved in that deestric', l didn't
think nothin' O goin' out an'-but,
pshaw! Watts the use o. talkin'f TIL
hain't no snakes no more"
"Oh, yes there Is, c~randpopl' said little
peleg. "Me an Bill Simmons seen three
great big ones down long the creek yes
terday, and Bill says he knows where
there's n heap Of EN-"
"He does, hayf" replied Peleg's grand
father, with q touch of sarcasm in his
tone, "Wall, does he happen to know
whar he kin clap his eyes on a drill tailed
egg splitter? Did Bill Simmons mention
anything bout no count sarpints O. that
name la that election o his'C?"
"N-no," said Peleg, opening his eyes
wide. Gle di int say anything about it,
but he says he knows a snake that milks
cows and carries the milk in q bag that
hangs from bis neck and takes it around
and peddles it to other snakes that like
milk but can't milk cows. Bills going TO
show me that snake some day"
This seemed to stagger Old Settler for q
nny,np md ha lanBn1 ,rnncu Rr,t hn
recovered himself and said:
"Bul knows whar thur one O. them
baggy necked milk peddlers, does her
Wall, Bil's an obsarvin' boy, but I'm
afeerd he's a f"ollerin' pooty clus in his
daLdy's footsteps, en- the fust thing he
knows he'll parn to lie. His daddy, oil
Jake Simmons, TT shy O. the truth till his
dyin' day"
"But them drill tail egg spitters, they
was a sarpint th't Sugar Swamp deestric'
were proud on wen / were a boy. They
was q tol'able curious snake, an / don't
see wat people could ha' ben thinkin' on
to let their breed die out, cause they was
a useful part o nat'ral hist'ry sixty year
ago. But faint likely thuz ez much ez
a dried skin O one left in the hull dees-
tric'.
1.-THE drill tailed egg splitter didn't brag
much on his height, but wen it come
down to heft he alluz ~ockypied n front
seat ut the show. That is, specially the
he male. These snakes was fixed up by
natur' in a curious way. Yc know, Peleg,
th't in the honey bee family thuz the
queen, the drone II the worker bee. Now
these drill tail egg spitters was cut ont by
natur' in pooty much the same way, 'cept
th't they didn't hev no drone. Not
much they didn't. They had the he
male, the she male and the worker. The
he male had the drill tail, the she male
had the egg splitter tn the worker he
jist worked. To make this int'restin'
lectur' in nat'ral hist'ry plain an simple,
III call the he Teller the drill snake, the
she un the splitter snake, an the worker'u
come under his proper name o. worker
snake.
"The drill snake, Peleg, were not over
two foot long. He were two inches N q
half through, an the same size al the
way down, like a round stick Of wood.
The hcad were bout the shape OF an oil
fashioned fiat turnip, an weighed W.
poun'. In the middle o. the tail end,
which were cut square of, just like a
round stick o wood is sawed of, tn were
fitted a drill, mebby six or seven inches
long, an an inch thick where it were
fastened to the snake, an tapered off to Il
volable sharp pint. Six inches or so Of
the tail end o the snake were got up on
the plan O. one o. these twisted springs
that We kin push way down ez fiat ez a
sasser, almost, but witch jumps up aG'n
Quicker'n a powder fash Wien We let go Of
it. The drill snake were about the color
Of a 50-year-ol' barn ez hadn't never been
painted. So We kin see, Peleg, that this
sarpint want ez pooty ez a pictur' book,
but he didn't travel on his beauty no
morn he did on his height. Wat he
Dragged about were his uncommon git up
an git.
"The splitter snake didn't seem to hev
many p'tic'lar p'ints bout her ez fur ez
we could see, 'cept th't she were jist ez
purity ez her OF man were huply. But
her innard arrangements was a little diff
fer'nt from them o. any other sarpint ez
had managed to 'scape from the ark with
Noar, for Std o. layin' her eggs like COM
mon ordinary snakes does, she fetched 'em
up like a cow does her eud, an spit 'em
out. Then wien she Travelled she alluz
got herself UP in the shape Of a letter S,
an went sailin' along ez pooty ez a swan
a swimmin', an kinder putin We in mind
o. one, too.
''The worker snake O. this curious sar-
pint family were a dandy. Peleg, l only
wisht I'd a thort fur enough ahead wen
were a boy, an I'd a KEEP speciment o.